Right on Time: Curren Caples Sets the Tempo With His Signature Vans Sneaker

Palm Springs lounges at the feet of the sun-baked San Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains, a historic Hollywood outpost known for swanky resorts, hot springs, mid-century modern architecture, and cacti-covered lawns.

However it wasn’t movie stars who descended upon the pristine desert town during the second week of May 2025, but an international group of pro skateboarders, surfers, and sneaker industry vets. They arrived to slip on the latest Vans signature skate shoe – The Curren – and celebrate the man behind the sneaker himself: Curren Caples.

The child prodigy skateboarder with the dreamy, So-Cal surfer looks (and skating style to match) is all grown up, has paid his dues to the core skate community, and has a killer new signature shoe with Vans to prove it.

The two-day event in Palm Springs included a wave-pool surf ‘competition’ between Curren and his family and friends, and a bus ride out to the desert for an insane skate sesh on a faux, broken-in-half fullpipe – a quarter of which ended up actually breaking. It quickly became apparent that this was a celebration not just for Curren and his shoe, but for the entire Vans family – a team who've proudly watched the 29-year-old mature from a pre-teen contest skater to an all-terrain ripper, who’s now with one of the coolest and most respected board brands in the biz, Fucking Awesome.

The Curren is poised to be an instant classic sneaker for Vans – one that honours the classic DNA of the ‘World’s #1 Skateboarding Shoe’ brand and their commitment to comfort, durability, and grip on the board. Billed as ‘Vulcanized Perfection,’ the Curren’s tagline is apt. Everything – inside, out, and under the shoe – has been carefully crafted for comfort and performance, and matches Curren’s clean, timeless style.

Sneaker Freaker caught up with Curren to talk about the inspiration, design process and tech behind the shoe, the athlete’s humble thoughts on joining the ranks of Vans' signature riders, and more. Read on!

The phrase I keep hearing when people in the industry are talking about your shoe is that it’s ‘long overdue’. How does it feel to not only have your own signature shoe, but also know your peers think it’s rightly deserved?

I mean, it's an insane opportunity and something that I always wanted, but never really thought would come around. It's a huge honour, especially from Vans. I'm such a die-hard Vans fan. Even before I rode for Vans, [I was] skating for another shoe brand, but I would wear Vans at school. It's something that just felt like a pipe dream. Now that it's here, it's pretty insane.

What brand were you on before Vans?

I rode for Adio, but I was really young. I was 10 years old.

You've been in the game for a long time. I think that's why people are saying the shoe is well deserved – because it seems as if it should’ve happened already.

It's funny people say [that] – but I don't think that way at all. I have been skating for Vans for a long time, but there were certain things I felt like I needed to do in skateboarding. When I was a kid, I did well in contests, but contests in skateboarding are kind of... it's like icing on the cake. There's a big back-end to skating that I felt like I hadn't really achieved yet. I wanted to put out video parts and things, which – when I was younger – I put off. So people say ‘overdue,’ but I think it's the right time.

Can you walk us through the process of designing the shoe? When did you first find out from Vans that you were going to get a signature model?

When I found out, it was – I think – two years ago? And I was actually at this hotel [pointing towards next-door venue].

Oh, really?

Right over there. Super random! Fully by chance that this event is happening here now. But [as for the design process], I was just screenshotting, and searching high and low. It feels like reinventing the wheel, because there's been so many styles – and then, I'm also so particular about what I like to skate. It was a scary process to figure out what I wanted it to look like, how I wanted it to skate, and being comfortable in it. And also, having something that looks like what I’d wear – because I'm pretty known for just wearing Slip-Ons and Old Skools.

Yes, I was going to ask you about that – you're known for wearing those two models. What did you take from those, if anything, for your own shoe?

Yeah, my favorite shoe is a Slip-On. I wanted something that had laces, but felt like you were wearing a Slip-On. So I had Vans basically try to put a panel in the inside of the shoe, so you don't feel any seams. I also wanted no seams to meet up anywhere on your foot, as points that poke out.

That's what I noticed when I put them on – I actually put them on first with no socks this morning, and they were very comfortable right out of the box. There's no digging in on your Achilles or anything.

There's a lot of subtle things that went into designing the shoe, to get rid of anything that would bug me. That's how Slip-Ons feel for me, so I wanted to get as close to a Slip-On with laces as possible.

I think you did it, man. They're really comfortable, and they look sick. What’s your favorite colourway of the shoe – one we’ve already seen, or something still coming up?

I definitely like the dark brown ones – they’re pretty cool-looking. There's an all-black leather one – those are really nice leather, those are premium. There's more to come out. The shoe can be coloured a lot of different ways – you can make it look like a classic Vans shoe or you can colour it out to where it looks completely different.

The colourways that have released so far incorporate a good range of materials including full-grain leather, suede, mesh and canvas. Was this a conscious effort to provide skaters with a few different material options?

Yeah – I'm a big fan of suede shoes, and then the brown and grey pairs are synthetic leather, and they last a long time. I've skated a lot of them now, and I haven't really been able to go through a pair. They look so destroyed, but they're still good to go!

There is a break-in period for them – straight out of the box, they're not going to feel great. But the more you skate them, the more you work it in, the more and more they’ll feel better. That was something that I really liked, because I think shoes that come straight out of the box ‘ready to go’ are the ones that are going to break down faster. It was cool to find leather that definitely needs a bit of wearing in to get it going.

The all-black colourway was only sold at Vans VCU accounts. Is it important to you to release your shoe in an exclusive edition like that, to support the core shops?

I grew up in a family that has a shop, so I know how shops are. I think it’s really special for them to get exclusive stuff you can't get online. It kind of keeps the core of skating in the local scene. I think that's a key role in skateboarding – and skate footwear for sure – which makes it more special. You buy something online, it just shows up at your door. There's nothing really special about that. I look at the way stuff has happened in the past in my life, and the most special things are the things you have to go seek out, and go get, if you really want them. With that colourway, that was the main one that felt really special – so I wanted it [to go to] skate shops.

What sort of input did you have on the modified waffle pattern and the jazz stripe of the outsole – is that something you helped design, or was it presented to you and you liked it?

I was looking at 90s Vans, and there were a lot of random side-stripes on the bottom of the shoes. I thought they looked really funky – some are just crazy-looking, but there were a couple that I was like, ‘Oh, that looks pretty sick'. I think it's cool the way [the stripe] can get coloured out. Watching people skate and seeing it, it just adds a little bit of flair. And it’s still a waffle pattern, it's just reversed – instead of it being hollowed out, it's raised, and the more you work it in the grippier it gets. So they start off a little… I wouldn't say ‘slick’, but as they wear in, they're gonna get better.

There were a lot of little things that I definitely tweaked, and it was fun to play around. [Despite] how plain and classic it looks, there's a lot of attention to detail and feeling. It all has a purpose.

What does it feel like to see other people – be they another pro skater or a random person – wearing a shoe with your name on it?

The first thing that I ask everyone is, ‘How do they feel? Do you like them?’ Because my feet are pretty jacked from skating over the years, and everyone's feet are so different. So I'm just making sure they feel good. ‘Do you like them? They don't do anything weird?’

You're self-conscious about it?

Yeah – it feels really good on my foot, so I hope it feels good on other people's feet. That's my main thing: how they feel.

Feel the Vans Curren for yourself, available now at skate shops worldwide.